Buying Beans

Much like wine, coffee beans come from numerous regions all around the world and each has a distinct taste depending on the environment it was grown in. Green coffee beans from Mexico may have hazelnut flavor undertones, whereas green coffee beans from Guatemala may have natural chocolate undertones.

The green coffee beans you buy must all be generally the same color, shape and size. Coffee beans of the same size will roast more evenly, whereas smaller beans may roast quicker and affect the overall taste. Green coffee beans of different colors may indicate potential drying problems and different shapes may indicate that a different strain of bean may have been mixed in.

Defects such as fermenting or smoke damage can be easily detected in raw green coffee beans.

Bean Process

When the fruit is ripe, it is almost always handpicked, using either “selective picking”, where only the ripe fruit is removed, or “strip-picking”, where all of the fruit is removed from a branch all at once. Because a tree can have both ripe and unripe berries at the same time, one area of crop has to be picked several times, making harvesting the most labor intensive process of coffee bean production.

There are two methods of processing the coffee berries. The first method is “wet processing”, which is usually carried out in Central America and areas of Africa. The flesh of the berries is separated from the seeds and then the seeds are fermented – soaked in water for about two days. This dissolves any pulp or sticky residue that may still be attached to the seeds. They are then washed and dried in the sun, or, in the case of commercial manufacturers, in drying machines

Green Coffee Beans and Weight Loss

“Green coffee” refers to the raw or unroasted seeds (beans) of Coffea fruits. Green coffee beans are cleaned, dried, roasted, ground, and brewed to produce coffee. Researchers claim green coffee bean extract can help with weight loss, and the supplement has generated a lot of buzz.

The most recent study on green coffee bean was published in January 2012 in Diabetes, Metabolic Syndrome and Obesity. The researchers followed a group of 16 adults who supplemented with a special green coffee bean extract of chlorogenic acids at different dosages (either 700 or 1050 milligrams per day) for 12 weeks. All 16 adults were considered overweight, as demonstrated by a BMI of greater than 25. The subjects lost an average of almost 18 pounds – this was 10% of their overall body weight and 4.4% of their overall body fat.